Something strikes me as wrong about this whole situation, and I don't think your gloating is helping me either.

I'm not gloating about having the shoes and the money. I'm pointing out the irony that he tried to act like a jerk and ended up hurting himself. Life doesn't always work out quite so neatly.

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I'm not saying that the seller treated you fairly, but it seems like you are being kind of unfair, by either ripping off the seller or paypal. You've got both the goods and the money. There's just something a little ethically off about that. First, I don't think it's that weird for you to have to pay return shipping.

I have not ripped off the seller or paypal. The seller misrepresented the shoes. I tried to return them and he would not return my email or VM. Then, after he agreed to take the return, I tried to return the shoes to him and he marked them return to sender. I guess I don't understand your analysis at all around ethics.

I don't think its weird that I had to pay return shipping. I made the offer to do so.

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Next, I'd give the seller one last chance to get his goods back. It's just not right for you to have both. It's either unfair to him, if his paypal account was actually deducted. Or unfair to paypal, if you keep both. Just send him an email, explain the situation, tell him he should be pay return shipping and reimburse you for your earlier costs/annoyances. If he doesn't agree to that, then keep the shoes.

I did send the seller a note asking how he would like to proceed as soon as I saw the shoes had been returned. I don't expect to hear from him.

I don't think you are gloating, but it just doesn't seem like the seller is some evil guy who tried to rip you off multiple times. Although of course, it is possible. He probably just doesn't know what happened yet.

That said, you aren't really obligated to do more work, you've already done enough. Just sit on the AEs for a month or so. That's what I would do.

I'm not gloating about having the shoes and the money. I'm pointing out the irony that he tried to act like a jerk and ended up hurting himself. Life doesn't always work out quite so neatly.

I have not ripped off the seller or paypal. The seller misrepresented the shoes. I tried to return them and he would not return my email or VM. Then, after he agreed to take the return, I tried to return the shoes to him and he marked them return to sender. I guess I don't understand your analysis at all around ethics.

I don't think its weird that I had to pay return shipping. I made the offer to do so.

I did send the seller a note asking how he would like to proceed as soon as I saw the shoes had been returned. I don't expect to hear from him.

I guess I misunderstood the story. I thought that you attempted to return the shoes, and they were returned to you by someone other than the seller. It seems very odd that he would mark return to sender. There's just no reason for it. It seems more likely that someone else, be it the post office or someone other than the seller, likely marked it return to sender. For instance, it got sent to the wrong address because of his move. If he actually returned them to you, then I see no ethical issue in keeping them, and I'm sorry for misinterpreting the situation. However, if it was not him, then I think you are under a further obligation to try to get them returned to him, hopefully at his cost.

The last time I moved this happened to me. I had properly filled out and turned in a change of address form. A parcel arrived at my old address got returned to the seller and was marked return to sender. The seller alerted me to this and I provided him with my new address, but then I contacted the post office to find out why my parcel was returned instead of forwarded. I was told that a substitute carrier was on that day who did not know of all the change of addresses on file and that the carrier had failed to check the cards as they are apparently supposed to do. I was assured that my former regular carrier knew I had moved and would have forwarded it. I too thought that someone else had returned it like the person currently living at my old address. The post office said that an item is only returned if it has the post office return address stamp on it and that only the post office can put that on it so it was definitely one of their employees. So it seems unlikely to me that the seller returned it to you out of spite which really would not make any sense anyway. I bet it was some substitute employee who did not realize the guy had a forwarding address or the guy forgot to put in a forwarding address. The bottom line is if only the post office can stamp something return to sender then it was not the seller. I certainly would not pay to ship the item to him a second time but I also do not think you have earned the right to keep it either. I would explain to the guy what happened and tell him you are not paying to ship it twice. If he wants it back he will have to pay the cost of shipping, in advance, after which you will ship it to him. I suspect he will tell you to just keep the shoes at that point and then they would be yours.